With his second hit in Friday night's game against Valencia, Lumberjacks star DH Mynorli Gaajlimitz rewrote the franchise history books. That second hit was his 218th hit of the season, breaking his own single season franchise hits record of 217 that he set just one season ago. The biggest difference on this history re-write is: it's still August!
"He's unlike any hitter I have ever seen" commented teammate Sammy McNeill after the game. "The way he sees pitches. The way he handles the bat. The way he can hit the ball with ease wherever he seems to want to hit it is just remarkable. Again, I've never seen anyone do it so naturally as he does. He's a hitting machine."
After the game, a modest Gaajlimitz says he's now eyeing something bigger.
"I entered the year, yeah, wanting to beat the mark I set last year. But I want something bigger. I want the league's hit record. And not only do I want it, I want to keep it!"
So having now toppled his own single season hit's mark in Portland, Mynorli now sets his eyes on Dennis French's 19 year old record for hits in a season. In 2040, French collected 260 base hits, surpassing the mark set 2 years earlier by the guy many model Gaajlimitz's style after in Dusty Rhodes.
"I don't think he's like Dusty at all" discussed Portland manager Mons Raider who was Rhodes' teammate for a period of time in Madison. "Rhodes was mainly a singles hitter who would occassionally run into a homerun here and there. He might collect 30 extra base hits in a season while spraying 250 or so hits around the ball park. No. Mynorli is more than that. No, he doesn't have the power of a traditional DH, but he does hit the ball in the gap and to the wall way more than what Rhodes would do. I don't think the two are similar in that regards. Their similarities stop with their greatness of just collecting hits."
Raider is correct. Not only does Gaajlimitz currently lead the league in hits by a wide margin, but he's also tied for the Frick League lead in doubles as well with 41 on the season. Of the 223 hits collected this season by Mynorli, 51 of those have gone for extra bases. In fact, despite having just 9 homeruns on the season, his .529 slugging percentage is only slightly outside the top 10 in the Frick League. But that's not Mynorli's focus.
"Nope" he added. "I'm eyeing two things. 260 and .400" ha stated. "Those are my two individual goals for this season. I want us back in the Landis Series and I want it to be on the back of my hits and average."
260 seems well in reach. He currently sits at 223 hits for the season and stat projections have him somewhere around 275 hits for the season. He's also looking at becoming just the 3rd player in BBA history to hit over .400. He currently sits at .403 and would join the likes of Manny Aguilar and Steve Collins if he could manage that.
"He's just amazing" added in AGM Sandy Mounds. "And he's doing all of this without missing a game. He's played in every game with Portland the last two years. Remarkable."
